Shudder Saturday: The Apology (2022)

Remember about a decade ago when the internet seemed to turn on Anna Gunn? Not for any good reason, mind you, but rather for the fact that she played a character who understandably became upset when she found out that her husband had been making money from a drug kingpin lifestyle. Since that role, a role we can surely consider the biggest of her career (to date), I have been wanting Gunn to get something else that felt worthy of her acting talent. I may have missed a lot of the projects that she ended up involved with, she has done a lot more TV work over the past nine or ten years, but I was determined to get around to The Apology with an optimistic mindset. Sadly, life got in the way, but I have now finally managed to see it, and I can now recommend it to everyone else.

Gunn plays Darlene Hagen, a recovering alcoholic who is getting everything ready for a family Christmas celebration. It's been a long time since she's done that kind of thing, and things aren't helped by it being the twenty year anniversary of the disappearance of her daughter. At least she has a very helpful neighbour, Gretchen (Janeane Garofalo), but Gretchen soon heads home and leaves Darlene alone with her thoughts, and a stashed bottle of vodka. Thankfully, ex-brother-in-law Jack (Linus Roache) turns up unexpectedly. He has something on his mind though, and it's not just the worry of wondering whether he'll be allowed to attend the official festive celebrations.

The feature debut from writer-director Alison Locke, The Apology is almost a perfect example of how to deliver a small-scale drama that feels much bigger, and more impactful, than it could have been. Locke has written a beautifully-crafted screenplay, she has a good team looking after the visual side of things (cinematographer Jack Caswell and editor Lana Wolverton do their bit to make everything looked polished and more expensive than I suspect it was), and she has two people in the lead roles who are able to deliver the performances that the material deserves. 

I would struggle to pick a favourite between Gunn and Roache, and their ongoing conversation throughout the film is absolutely riveting stuff, with both going through a wide range of emotions. Gunn gets to express more pain and anger, which may give her the edge when it comes to critically comparing the acting, but neither cast member drops the ball, or even slightly fumbles. While only onscreen for a few minutes, Garofalo does very well as the third substantial character (although Mary Leeholland and Esmé McSherry both portray Darlene's missing daughter, shown a couple of times, and Zena Leigh Logan fills out the cast list with her fleeting role as an interviewer shown interviewing Darlene in a TV clip).

There are other films I could compare this to, great films, but making those comparisons might give away the direction that this takes. Trust me, this is a harrowing drama that packs a hell of a punch, and it manages to give you the ending that you want, as unlikely as that may seem at various points throughout the second half. I recommend this to anyone who appreciates powerhouse performances and can handle difficult material handled in a way that is unflinching, but also not exploitative. You won't be disappointed, and you may even value the talent of Anna Gunn as much as I do.

8/10

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Mubi Monday: Mandy (2018)

Something a bit different this week, and something that keeps me on track with the horror element for the month. MUBI now has a MUBI Go feature, offering subscribers a cinema ticket to one film per week, subject to availability at your local cinemas. And this week they offered up Mandy. Well, it would have been rude to refuse the offer.

Panos Cosmatos made quite a name for himself with his feature debut, Beyond The Black Rainbow. I still haven't seen that film, despite all the praise heaped upon it, but I couldn't resist the pull of Mandy when it was sold to me as, essentially, Nicolas Cage angrily battling demons.

Cage lives with the woman he loves (Mandy, played by Andrea Riseborough) in a cabin in the woods. It seems to be an idyllic life they lead, with Cage working hard during the day so that he can relax and watch Nightbeast with his loved one in the evening. But that is all spoiled when an evil cult member spies Mandy and decides that he has to have her. So he sends some demon bikers along, which is when things start to get completely insane.

The first reason to see Mandy is the glorious visual style of Cosmatos. Almost every frame is painted like the lurid cover of some pulp sci-fi or fantasy novel. This is a landscape that feels like someone has blended the works of Michael Moorcock and Piers Anthony and then poured them directly onto the screen. It's a truly stunning feast for the eyes. Based on this, and from what I had heard already, I really do need to see Beyond The Black Rainbow ASAP. Cosmatos may not have churned out many movies but his quality over quantity approach means I can be fully caught up very quickly.

The second reason to see this movie is Nicolas Cage. The rest of the cast all do a good job (Riseborough is always pretty great, Linus Roache and Ned Dennehy are two of the main cult members, and you get fantastic small turns from Richard Brake and Bill Duke) but Cage is the one going through a transformation here, from simple man living in contentment to grief-stricken victim to, well, a weapon-wielding kind of demi-god. The shooting style helps to show this, as Cage becomes stronger and stronger on his quest for vengeance, culminating in some final scenes that I won't detail here. Let me just say that I would love to see his character able to reappear in some future film that develops him further.

Other reasons to see the movie include the lush score by the late Johann Johannson, a crazy Cheddar Goblin advert (a turning point for the whole movie, created by someone who helped make the viral hit "Too Many Cooks"), a sparse script that still manages to contain a number of chilling lines, and the fact that it's the best Hellraiser movie in almost two decades, even if it's not ACTUALLY an instalment of that franchise.

Well worth seeing on the big screen, you won't believe your eyes and ears. And you may well find yourself, as I did, eagerly awaiting a repeat viewing. It's an audio-visual experience that I can see myself wanting to have again and again and again.

9/10

A lot of people may want to buy the soundtrack here.
Americans can buy it here.

Sci-Fi September: The Chronicles Of Riddick (2004)

After the small acorn that was Pitch Black, this sequel, in what would become the Riddick franchise, quickly lets viewers see that they're being given a mighty oak this time around. The first few scenes are grandiose, in terms of both visual style and the setting up of a premise that will allow people to learn more about the universe that vicious anti-hero Riddick (Vin Diesel) inhabits, and writer-director David Twohy clearly wants to go in a different direction from the enjoyably down 'n' dirty first film.

Starting off with narration that explains the Necromongers, a ruthless race who have been moving throughout the universe, killing or converting everyone on the planets that they conquer. We then move on to a man being chased by bounty hunters. That man is Riddick, and the bounty has been placed on his head to get him back to Helion Prime, the world next to be targeted by the Necromongers. It's not Riddick's fight, so he wants no part of the whole thing, but details eventually surface that make him reconsider. Details that also reveal more about his background and his feral nature.

With everything being so much bigger this time around, it was almost inevitable that The Chronicles Of Riddick would disappoint many people. It didn't set alight the box office, and it probably knocked a few people sideways who hoped for something more in line with the first film. Thankfully, people eventually warmed to the film, and the whole franchise idea, when they had the luxury of viewing the movie in their own home, and with a better idea of what they were getting into.

Diesel is, once again, the rock at the centre of the whole thing. He's effortlessly cool and intimidating as Riddick, embodying one of the great anti-heroes in modern cinema and loving every minute of it. Keith David reprises his role from Pitch Black, while Alexa Davalos takes over the role of another survivor from the first film, now going by the name Kyra. David is okay, mainly used for exposition and to set wheels in motion, but Davalos has the better role, and does well with it. Dame Judi Dench is an unexpected, though pleasing, addition to the cast, playing an ethereal character named Aereon, and the main villains are portrayed by Colm Feore, Karl Urban, Linus Roache and Thandie Newton. Urban and Roache both do good work, with the former being an actor who I've never seen give a bad performance, but Newton is sadly flat in a role that many actresses would have really had fun with. Feore, however, proves even more disappointing. He's the Lord Marshal, the big bad, and should be able to emanate power and menace whenever he's onscreen. He doesn't, which affects the film on a number of different occasions.

The script and direction from Twohy is solid, if sprinkled liberally with minor failings, such as the relatively weak villains. The special effects and visual design elements are impressive, despite a few key creations already showing their age compared to what can be done now, one decade on. The action set-pieces are sometimes fumbled, with some unfortunate over-editing making it hard to keep track of who is where onscreen, but the film continues to impress whenever the camera moves back, taking in grand landscapes, star systems, and giant spaceships. The fact that the focus remains on the expansive, as opposed to intimate, moments is what saves the film and makes it such an enjoyable sci-fi viewing.

The director and leading man may make mistakes on the way to getting their movie finished, but they always do right by Riddick and his universe. And that, for me, makes up for a hell of a lot.

7/10

http://www.amazon.com/Riddick-Complete-Collection-Blu-ray-UltraViolet/dp/B00GHP8T1Y/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1410092573&sr=1-1&keywords=riddick+box+set